Conference week

This week we've had a conference on in Wellington - the biennial MacDiarmid Institute conference on advanced materials and nanotechnology. Of all the conferences I've been to, it's the one that I always get the most out of (this was the 5th one).

But I've found out this week that having a conference in your own city can be more tiring than if it's somewhere else. When you have to travel for a conference, you stay in a hotel nearby, you can focus on it, and you don't have all the other stuff that you have to deal with when you're at home such as cooking, washing, etc.

Anyway it was a good meeting and while there's still a little bit of entertaining of international visitors to go (bbq on Sunday afternoon, Monday hosting Mike at IRL), it'll be much less intense than the past week has been. Then come Wednesday, Mike and I are heading down to Queenstown to do the Routeburn track. Last year we did the Tongariro Northern Circuit, which was fantastic. Having seen pictures of the scenery and looking at the weather forecast, I am really looking forward to this!